After the Last Supper was finished it says that Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and what is amazing is that we know what that hymn might have been. The meal they just finished was the Passover or Seder meal and the specific readings that closed that time of worship came from Psalms 113-118. So the hymn that Jesus may have been singing and the message that may have been on his heart and mind as he went off to pray could have been this: Psalm 116:1-6.
Jesus probably did feel those cords of death around him as he walked to Gethsemane because he knew what was coming. With his betrayal at the hands of Judas coming in a few hours and his death on the cross looming less than a day away, Jesus must have been thinking to himself how the cords of death entangled him and he surely must have felt the anguish of the grave come upon him and he is so overcome with trouble and sorrow that in just a few moments he is going to call on the name of God to save him.
When Jesus arrives in the garden or grove of olive trees known as Gethsemane, he would have had a very clear view of the Temple, particularly the East Wall of the Temple which contained what is known as the Beautiful Gate. It was through this gate that the prophet Ezekiel said that God’s prince, or the Messiah, would enter the city. Ezekiel 44:1-3. So as Jesus looks up at this gate he is thinking to himself that he could be that Prince. Jesus could be this kind of Messiah who could come that day and redeem and rescue God’s people. This is a very real option for Jesus. There will be any number of opportunities for Jesus to reveal his power and glory to the world in the next few hours and so as he enters Gethsemane, Jesus is struggling to see if maybe this is God’s will. Is God calling him to rise up at this moment and come as God’s prince through the beautiful gate and free God’s people, or is he to leave the Temple the next afternoon carrying a cross? What is God’s will? What kind of Messiah is God calling him to be?
To be able to discern God’s will in this moment is a real struggle for Jesus. He is feeling pressure from both sides which is why I think he chose Gethsemane as the place to pray because Gethsemane means Olive Oil press and Jesus is feeling pressed between 2 very different and yet very viable options. Will he come with God’s power here and now and bring a worldly victory, or will he surrender himself as the Lamb of God and allow victory over sin and death to come through his blood shed on a cross? Jesus enters Gethsemane to pray about this very thing and what amazes me isn’t that this is a struggle for Jesus, what amazes me is that as Jesus enters into this time of prayer he is looking for help and support.
As Jesus and his disciples arrive in Gethsemane it says Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John and walks further into the grove of trees where he finally pours out his heart to his friends. He tells them that his soul is overwhelmed to the point of death, words which again echo Psalm 116, and Jesus is looking for his friends to watch and pray with him. For me, this is one of the most amazing moments in the gospels, maybe in all of human history, because it is the moment where the God of the universe in the person of Jesus asks for help and looks for support. Jesus, who had the power to call out demons, walk on water, raise the dead and put the religious leaders in their place, is looking for help and asking for support, and yet, if we stop and think about it, God is always asking for help. God makes the conscious choice to work with us, which means that everyday God is looking to us for help and support in accomplishing his purpose and plan in the world.
God entrusts his message of love and salvation to us and then He calls us to work with him to share that message with others. God calls us to work with him to bring about the love and justice of his kingdom. What a privilege it is for us to work with God. What an honor for us to hear God say, I am asking for your help today and I need you and want you to work with me. The question is, will we? Will we be faithful and work with God or will we, like Peter, James and John, allow the things of this world to pull us away?
Peter, James and John were asked to work with Jesus, to watch and pray with him and I’m sure their desire was to be there for Jesus because they loved him, but in spite of their love, they allowed the things of this world to pull them away. Now before we get too critical of Peter, James and John we have to remember that it is late at night, they have just finished a big meal filled with lots of food, wine and emotions and while they can see that Jesus is visibly upset, they don’t know what’s coming. They don’t know Jesus’ betrayal is at hand and they don’t know the pressure Jesus is facing and the options that He sees before him. They don’t see what Jesus sees, they just know they are tired and so end up falling asleep again, and again and again.
I wonder if the disciples had been able to see all that Jesus was going through if they would have stayed awake and watched and prayed with him? While we will never know, I do believe that the more we see of God’s work and movement in the world, the more faithful we will be. For us to remain faithful and obedient to God during the difficult times when it would be easier to fall asleep or walk away we need to be able to see the movement of God. Seeing God at work gives us the encouragement and strength to keep working ourselves. When Peter saw Jesus walk on water he wanted to walk on water with him. When the disciples saw Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead they wanted to be part of God’s work. When we see God move in people’s lives, when we see miracles of healing and hope it gives us strength and power to keep working with God, so if we don’t want to fall away when God calls us to work with him, we need our eyes and the eyes of our heart opened to what God is doing, we need to watch what God is doing and then we need to pray and ask God to help us move with him.
But the disciples don’t see all that God is doing and so they don’t pray and once again Jesus is betrayed and alone. Jesus goes off to pray and his prayer is that the cup would pass from him. Now if we go back to Psalm 116 which may have been the psalm on Jesus mind as he finishes the Seder meal and walks to Gethsemane, there is a line which says, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord (116:13). Now if we tie this cup of salvation to the cup of salvation that Jesus physically lifted up a few hours ago in the Seder meal cup we know that this cup of salvation for Jesus means his outstretched hand nailed to a cross. The cup Jesus is talking about here is the cup of salvation but we see that it is also a cup of suffering, so when Jesus asked for the cup to pass from him he was asking God if there was another way for him to redeem and rescue God’s people without having to die on a cross. Going back to Exodus 6 and the four-fold promise of God, was there a way for Jesus to set people free from the slavery of sin and death and make them God’s people without having to stretch out his hand on the cross? Could God just allow this third cup to pass from him and still redeem His people?
In Gethsemane there are 2 very clear roads before Jesus. There is the road of suffering - the way of the cup, and there is the road of worldly power and life - the way of the Temple gate that Jesus can see from where he prays. The struggle for Jesus, the struggle which drives him to his knees in prayer is which road will He take? Which road is God’s will? The truth is that Jesus already knows the answer because the questions was answered by God a long time ago. The prophet Isaiah said that it would be by the wounds of the Messiah that the people would be healed. Isaiah 53:3-11.
God had decided long ago that it would be the suffering of the Messiah that would redeem the world, but as that suffering comes close, the temptation for Jesus to take the easy road and seek some other way is strong, but this is not the first time Jesus has faced this temptation. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was led by Satan into the wilderness where he was tempted three times, and each temptation was to take the easy way out. There was the temptation to turn stones to bread and not live a life of sacrifice but a life where he met his own personal and physical needs. Jesus refused. There was the temptation to throw himself off the top of the Temple and allow God’s angels to rescue him and thus reveal to the world in one spectacular moment exactly who he was as the Messiah. Jesus refused. And then there was the temptation to grab hold of all the world’s riches and power and again, Jesus refused.
Three times at the beginning of his ministry Jesus was tempted to take the easy road and here at the end of his earthly ministry is one final temptation for Jesus to again take the easy road. It would be physically easier and less painful for Jesus to reveal his power and glory now than to carry a cross and this was a very real temptation and struggle for Jesus. In Luke’s gospel it says that Jesus struggled so much that his sweat was like drops of blood.
As we watch Jesus struggle in Gethsemane we begin to see that through Jesus God understands the temptations we face in life. God not only knows the temptation we face to take the easy way out but this scene shows us that God understands many other struggles we face. God knows what it is like to want and need the help and support of others and not get it. He knows what it is like to feel betrayed and let down. He understands the uncertainty of the future and the concern we have for those we leave behind. Maybe more than anything what we see here is that Jesus understands just how hard it is to be sure of God’s will for our lives.
So we see that God understands what we struggle with in life, but then we see in Jesus the power of God’s love for us when he says, not what I will, but what you will. Mark 14:36.
My hope is that this is a prayer we would also want to make, but let’s be honest, it is not easy. Setting aside our will to take up the will of God is not easy and what we learn from Jesus is that if we are going to do it, if we are going to embrace God’s will and not our own we are going to need God’s help and we are going to need to watch and pray and a good prayer for us to use would be a prayer written by John Wesley called the covenant prayer. (see below)
This covenant prayer can help us stay focused on what God wants for us and it gives words to our desire to be faithful even when we become weak or afraid or tempted to take the easy way out. I want to encourage us to use this prayer every day this week and see if begins to bring clarity to God’s will or if it gives us strength to follow Jesus once God’s will is made known.
The final scene in Gethsemane is a painful one. Judas arrives and has agreed to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders and the sign he gives the soldiers so they arrest the right man in the dark of night is a kiss, but it wasn’t just a signal, the kiss was also a sign of deep love and affection Judas had for Jesus because the word that is used here is philein which isn’t just a peck on the cheek; it is a kiss given out of genuine love. Judas loves Jesus and Jesus loves Judas, which makes this betrayal that much more painful. The kiss shows us that once again God knows what it is like to be betrayed and let down by those we love. We always need to understand that God does know what we go through in life – he’s gone through it himself.
Once we see Jesus arrested we might assume that his options are over, but they are not. Jesus could still fight back and in fact he is given a golden opportunity when Peter draws his sword and strikes one of the soldiers. Now in the movies this would be the moment when all hope seems lost but then suddenly a door opens and the hero emerges victorious – but this is not Hollywood and God’s ways are not ours. So instead of fighting back and choosing this moment to secure a victory, Jesus stops the fight and surrenders himself to the enemy. God will emerge victorious but in another way and on another day and in a more powerful way. The victory is coming, but it’s not going to be in this moment in Gethsemane.
Instead, what we see as this hour draws to a close is that everyone has failed Jesus. Judas has betrayed him, Peter, James and John have let him down, and all the rest have run off into the night. As we think about this moment, where would we be? Would we be fleeing into the night? Would we be standing with Jesus as the one who betrayed him? Or would we be standing with him saying to the soldiers, take me too? I know we would want to be the one who would stand with Jesus, but let’s be honest, that is not where we would be, but we can get there and Jesus tells us how in three little words - watch and pray. Watch where and how God is moving in your life and the world, and then pray for the strength to move with him.
Next Steps
24 Hours that Changed the World ~ The Garden of Gethsemane
1. Each day this week sing (read) one of the hymns Jesus and his disciples would have sung as they travelled from the upper room to Gethsemane. Psalms 113 – 118
2. Read the Temptation story in Matthew 4:1-11 or Luke 4:1-13. How does this story compare to Jesus time in Gethsemane? How can we learn from Jesus to overcome temptation in our own lives?
3. Watch and Pray. Use John Wesley’s covenant prayer to surrender yourself daily to God’s will.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
What is God’s work for you today? Who can / will support you? Have you asked them?
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